Trump pushes corruption claims
Republican jumps on latest release of hacked emails in bid to make up lost ground as Clinton campaigns with Michelle Obama
railing with time running out, Donald Trump denounced both Hillary and Bill Clinton yesterday as creatures of a corrupt political system who would use another pass at the Oval Office to enrich themselves at the expense of American families. Clinton turned to popular first lady Michelle Obama to rally voters in North Carolina, a state that could deliver a knockout blow to Trump.
Trump seized on newly public emails in which longtime Bill Clinton aide Doug Band describes overlapping relationships of the Clintons’ global philanthropy and the family’s private enrichment. The emails were among thousands stolen from the private account of a top Clinton aide, part of a hacking the Democratic campaign has blamed on Russia.
“Mr Band called the arrangement ‘ unorthodox’. The rest of us call it outright corrupt,” Trump declared during a rally in Springfield, Ohio. “If the Clintons were willing to play this fast and loose with their enterprise when they weren’t in the White House, just imagine what they’ll do in the Oval Office.”
Band wrote the 2011 memo to defend his firm, Teneo, describing how he encouraged his clients to contribute to the foundation and provide consulting and speaking gigs for Bill Clinton. Some of his work included obtaining “in- kind services for the president and his family — for personal travel, hospitality, vacation and the like”. He referred to the former President as “Bill Clinton Inc”.
Clinton made no mention of the revelations as she campaigned alongside Michelle Obama, their first joint appearance of the campaign.
The first lady has emerged as one of Clinton’s most powerful surrogates, passionately touting her experience and denouncing Trump as too divisive and thin- skinned for the White House.
“We want someone who is a unifying force in this country, someone who sees our differences not as a threat but as a blessing,” Obama said as she addressed an enthusiastic, 11,000- person crowd, one of Clinton’s biggest of the campaign. Trump often points out that his crowds are generally larger than his rival’s.
Obama also accused Trump’s campaign of trying to depress voter turnout and panned his provocative assertion that the results of the November 8 contest may be rigged.
“Just for the record, in this country, the United States of America, the voters decide elections,” the first lady said. “They’ve always decided.”
With a lead in the race for weeks, Clinton’s campaign is concerned that her advantage could prompt some of her backers to stay home on Election Day or cast protest votes for a thirdparty candidate. Nearly all of her recent events have been in states where early voting is already under way, aimed at using the rallies to prompt supporters to bank their votes now.
Following her rally with Obama, Clinton greeted students at an early voting site at University of North Carolina- Greensboro. She then dropped in on a homecoming pep rally at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, where she was greeted by a DJ blasting hip- hop, a dance troupe, a marching band and cheers.
Another troublesome sign for Trump: The Republicans’ congressional campaign committee has released a new TV ad that praises a GOP House member who has said Trump has “disqualified himself ” to be president. The ad for Representative Robert Dold of Illinois calls him an “independent voice” who has “stood up” to Trump, the first time the committee, which is devoted to electing Republicans to the House, has used a message openly critical of the party’s presidential nominee.
Still, the hacked emails and recent news of an “Obamacare” premium hike have appeared to hand Trump a pair of potent gifts in the campaign’s final fortnight. The Republican charged yesterday that the rate hikes were “making it impossible for parents to pay their bills and support their families”.
But to the frustration of many in his party, Trump has struggled to stay on message. While campaigning in Ohio, he criticised Clinton for being too tough on Russian President Vladimir Putin. “She speaks very badly of Putin, and I don’t think that’s smart,” he said.
Trump has been repeatedly criticised, by Republicans as well as Democrats, for failing to denounce Putin. He’s also refused to say whether he believes Russia is behind the hacking of Democratic groups, although intelligence agencies have pinned the blame on Moscow.
Earlier, he also repeated his insistence that Captain Humayun Khan, a Muslim- American soldier killed in Iraq, would be alive if he had been president during the war. Khan’s family is supporting Clinton and have harshly criticised Trump’s calls for temporarily banning Muslims from the United States.
Clinton responded: “I don’t understand how anyone would want to rub salt in the wounds of a grieving family.” Russian punk feminists Pussy Riot have turned their fire on Donald Trump with a graphic, dystopian video that imagines the United States if the Republican candidate wins.
The provocative band, whose members were jailed in Russia, intersperses footage of Trump with scenes of real and imagined violence in Make America Great Again, the title an allusion to his campaign slogan.
The video depicts police in a Trump America raping and otherwise humiliating members of the allwomen band, including measuring them to ensure their breast sizes are to President Trump’s liking, branding them like cows and forcibly restricting abortion.
The song’s lyrics also take to task Trump’s hardline stance on immigration and champion the rights of African Americans amid outrage over police brutality.
“Let other people in / Listen to your women / Stop killing black children / Make America Great Again,” goes the chorus.
Pussy Riot rose to prominence through heated denunciations of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has spoken of in admiring terms.
Frontwoman Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and fellow member Maria Alyokhina were sentenced to prison in 2012 for performing an antiPutin anthem on the altar of a Moscow church.
Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny praised Make America Great Again, tweeting: “Pussy Riot has thrown together one hell of a video. It’s very Hollywood and cool.”
The video is the third release this week by Pussy Riot for an EP to come and Justin Cooper, another longtime Bill Clinton aide, helped the former President and his family obtain gifts of “personal travel, hospitality, vacation” and air travel arrangements. Financial records Hillary Clinton filed between 2009 and 2013 li sted speeches and limited business income that Bill Clinton earned during her government service but did not list any travel, vacation or other gifts that Band cited in his memo.
Under federal disclosure rules overseen by the US Office of Government Ethics, federal officials and office seekers are not required to list gifts provided to a spouse if the gifts are “independent of their relationship to you”.
Norman Eisen, a Democrat who oversaw ethics matters for the Obama Administration and in 2011 was also appointed ambassador to the Czech Republic under Hillary Clinton, said out today entitled xxx.
After Pussy Riot’s earlier heavy, swirling guitars, the latest songs mark a sharp change of musical style for the group, which has worked closely with US artists since the members’ release from prison in 2013.
The Russian group also referenced Trump on Straight Outta Vagina. OGE rules did not require Hillary Clinton to divulge any gifts provided to Bill Clinton by his business clients.
“There’s no there there,” Eisen said, adding that he is disturbed that “ethics become weaponised in the course of an election campaign”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has touted the WikiLeaks releases of Podesta’s emails, while the Clinton campaign has repeatedly warned that the releases have exploited emails stolen by hackers working for the Russian Government.
“Mr Band called the arrangement unorthodox. The rest of us call it outright corruption,” Trump said yesterday.
The Clinton campaign did not immediately respond to questions from the AP about the Band memo. It said in a statement, “The Clintons are extremely proud of the work of the foun-